


Twelve: Part 1

by blurry_cryptid



Series: Twelve [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate universe - Added Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Everybody Lives, Gen, I'm still figuring out the story - tags will change accordingly, There'll be some dialogue changes because the ableism and queerphobia were getting on my nerves, Twelve is autistic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2020-01-05 02:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 10,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18356747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blurry_cryptid/pseuds/blurry_cryptid
Summary: A Stranger Things Season 1 AU where there were twelve experiments instead of eleven, and Twelve escaped the lab around the same time as Eleven did.





	1. Escape

**Author's Note:**

> As of right now, I have no plans to include any scene that would be the same or close to the same as in canon, unless it's really important to the story.

##### SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH, 1983

Twelve waited anxiously in the corner of the small, dark room. It was about to happen, she knew it. Was now the best time to act?

She should start before the alarms went off; they would make it difficult for the guards to hear her. But she shouldn't start too long before the alarms went off, because without the alarms as a distraction, she would have to use her power a lot. And this power was new, she had never used it before, so she would tire quickly if she used it a lot. She had to use her older power - her future sense - to know when the right time would be.

Now seemed like a good time. Twelve closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to use her new power. Had she been successful? She looked into the future to check. Yes, it seemed that she was successful in hypnotizing the guard outside the door and the people watching through the cameras.

She banged on the door. "Hey, guard, let me out of here!" she yelled. She heard some movement, and then a click, and the door opened. She blinked at the sudden light, then stood up and stumbled out of the room.

She turned to the guard. "Stay here after I leave," she commanded. "And don't say on the radio that I escaped." She looked at the camera. "You shouldn't say on the radio that I escaped either. The alarms and their cause are more important, so focus on them, not me." She looked back at the guard. "You know those doors that have a red light next to them? Give me your thing that opens them."

The guard slowly handed it to her. A few moments later the alarms went off, and she took off down the hall.

She had had plenty of time in the small, dark room, and she had used it to go over and over this escape with her future sense. She had planned out her route exactly. She had to stop here and hide in a closet to wait for some people to rush past. Okay, they passed, now she had to leave the closet and turn right at the end of the hall. There, she reached the room with all the cabinets.

She used the thing from the guard to open the door, then rushed inside. One, two, three rows, then turn left. One, two, three, four cabinets. Pull out the second drawer from the top, catch the back of it with your other hand before it hits the floor. There, your glasses. Put them on, now run out of the room and turn right.

Run, turn, run, hide, run, turn, run. Finally, the room with a window. Run inside the room, open the window and escape into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some explanation for Twelve's powers:
> 
> If you know the future, you can act differently and change it, so Twelve creates hypothetical scenarios where she acts in different ways and she uses her future sense to sense how those scenarios will play out. That's what she did when she checked if she successfully hypnotized the guards; she looked into a future where she assumed she was successful, and she checked if things went according to plan.
> 
> Her new power is the ability to temporarily change how others think, but only in a very general sense. If she wants to have a more specific or long-lasting effect on how someone thinks then she can put them into a hypnotic state and tell them how to think.


	2. Benny's Burgers

##### MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH, 1983

Eleven could smell the food in that building. Her hunger was gnawing at her. She needed to eat.

A man walked out from inside the building and put a black bag into a shiny garbage can. Eleven watched him as he went back inside, making a mental note of the door he used. She waited a minute, then walked up to the door and cautiously stepped inside.

The door opened into an empty hallway. So far so good. Eleven walked down the hallway quietly. From the end of the hallway she could see into a large room with people in it. The people were talking amongst themselves, and didn't seem to be aware of her. She watched them for a few seconds, and then she continued following the smell. The smell led her into a room full of machines that she didn't recognize. She looked around for a few seconds until she spotted some food and, after a taste and a quick look around, she dug in, eating ravenously.

But after only a few bites she heard a loud "Hey!", and when she looked up, she saw the man from earlier looking at her angrily. Uh oh! Time to run! She grabbed the food and ran to the exit, but the man caught up to her and grabbed her, and he shouted something at her.

But then his demeanor changed, and he stared at her. "What in the hell?" he muttered. Eleven just stared back at him. She wasn't sure what else to do.

The door to the outside opened suddenly, and both Eleven and the man turned and stared, surprised at what they saw. Twelve stared back at them.

* * *

Eleven and Twelve sat at a table while the man prepared some food for them. Eleven kept sneaking curious looks at Twelve, while Twelve openly stared at her.

After a minute of this, Eleven hesitantly stretched out her arm so her tattoo was visible, and looked at Twelve questioningly. Twelve did the same, except without any hesitancy or questioning. The two of them shared a look of mutual understanding, and then they pulled their arms back to their sides.

The man walked into the room holding two plates of food and sat down opposite the kids at the table, putting the food down next to them. The kids immediately began scarfing it down, which surprised the man.

"Jeez, your parents forget to feed you?"

The kids ignored him and continued eating.

"Are the two of you even siblings? You don't look very similar, but you both got the..." he gestured to his head.

The kids continued to ignore him.

"You two were in the hospital, you got scared, you ran off, you wound up here, is that it?"

Twelve looked up at the man and some blood came out of her nose. "It doesn't matter how we got here," she said. "Our names don't matter either. And you don't need to think about this weird feeling that you're feeling right now. It's not important. You also don't need to call Social Services. Social Services isn't needed."

Eleven looked at Twelve for a moment, then continued eating. Twelve wiped her nose and did the same. The man stared straight ahead with glazed eyes for a few seconds, and then he stood up.

"Right, well I gotta go and prepare more food. You kids are like a small army."

* * *

They stayed with the man, who told them his name was Benny, for the rest of the day. But after it got dark, Twelve started getting agitated. She kept on tapping her foot and rubbing her hands, and sometimes she would close her eyes and sit still for a few moments, and then run the back of her finger under her nose.

Finally, about an hour after dark, Twelve stood up, gestured to Eleven, and said, "We have to leave."

Benny and Eleven both looked at her, confused.

"What do you mean you have to leave?" Benny asked. "Where are you going?"

"There's some people we have to meet," Twelve replied.

This cryptic answer didn't satisfy Benny.

"What people? Why do you have to meet them? And why now? Why -"

Benny's eyes glazed over.

"You're going to let us leave," Twelve said calmly as she wiped her nose. "Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. Don't tell anybody about us, nobody needs to know that we stayed here today. Don't think about this weird feeling that you're feeling right now, it's not important." She turned to Eleven and held out her hand. "Come on, we need to go."

Eleven looked at Benny, who was still out of it, and then looked at Twelve. She hesitantly got up and took Twelve's hand. Twelve started leading her out of the kitchen.

Twelve had a determined look on her face as she left the kitchen. Eleven was more hesitant, and she turned her head to look back at Benny even as she let Twelve lead her away. Benny waved at her. She waved back.


	3. 'Night

Eleven was practically being dragged through the woods by Twelve. She was wet and cold and her feet hurt from walking on the rough ground. She wanted to rest, preferably somewhere sheltered from the rain.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of people yelling nearby.

Twelve perked up. "Oh, those are the people we're supposed to meet," she said. "Come on."

They started moving in the direction of the yelling, but just as they were getting close to it, it died down. Eleven strained her ears and was able to hear talking over the sound of the rain.

"... and we're going to... same spot... last seen... no weapons or anything..."

Eleven could see them now. There were three people holding lights.

The people suddenly pointed the lights straight at Eleven and Twelve. No one moved for a few moments, Eleven and Twelve squinting at the lights in their faces, and the three people just standing there in shock.

* * *

Thunder crashed outside. Eleven and Twelve sat huddled on the couch as they were inundated with questions from the boys.

"Are there any numbers we can call? For your parents?"

"Where's your hair? Do you both have cancer?"

"Did you two run away?"

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Is that blood?"

The boy who talked last reached his hand out toward Twelve. A different boy slapped his hand back.

"Stop it! You're freaking them out!" he cried.

"They're freaking _me_ out!"

"I bet they're deaf," the third boy interjected. He clapped at them. Eleven jerked back, and Twelve gave him a weird look. "Not deaf," he shrugged.

"Alright, that's enough! Alright? They're just scared, and cold," said the boy in the middle. He walked to a basket and took some clothes out of it. "Here," he handed two piles of clothes to Eleven and Twelve. "These are clean, okay?"

Eleven and Twelve took the clothes. Twelve looked at the boy questioningly.

"Oh!" He pointed. "The bathroom is over there."

Twelve got up and motioned for Eleven to follow her. They reached the bathroom, and Twelve halted at the door and gestured to Eleven to go inside. Eleven was hesitant, but complied. She got noticeably frightened when Twelve started to close the door, but Twelve didn't close it all the way, and she turned around and stood in front of the opening.

The boys started whispering amongst themselves. They were still whispering when Eleven came out of the bathroom and Twelve went inside. Eleven watched from in front of the door as they finally stopped whispering and the boy who gave them clothes started arranging blankets around a desk.

Twelve came out of the bathroom and the boy motioned them over to the blankets.

"Here, you'll sleep here tonight," he said. "It's a little cramped, but there's enough room for both of you."

Eleven and Twelve crawled inside, and the boy brought them some more blankets as the other two boys left.

"Hey, um, I never asked your names," he said shyly.

Twelve pulled up her sleeve to reveal her tattoo. A moment later, Eleven did the same.

"Woah, are those real?" he asked in awe, as he reached forward to touch Eleven's tattoo. Eleven pulled her hand back. "Sorry, I've just never seen kids with tattoos before. What do they mean, eleven and twelve?"

Eleven and Twelve both pointed to themselves.

"Those are your names?"

They nodded.

"Eleven and Twelve. Okay, um, well my name is Mike, short for Michael." He pointed to Eleven. "Maybe we can call you El, short for Eleven, and," he pointed to Twelve, "we can call you... uh, Twelve doesn’t really shorten like Eleven does, hold on... should we just call you Twelve? No, no we shouldn't. Unless you want to be called Twelve. Do you want to be called Twelve?"

Twelve shrugged.

Mike turned back to Eleven. "Um, okay, so we can call you El, do you want to be called El?" El nodded. "Okay, so you're El, and..." he turned to Twelve. "We can call you... how about Em? Do you want to be called Em? It's kind of random, but I can't think of a nickname for Twelve, so..." Mike shrugged.

Em nodded.

"Um, well okay. 'Night El, 'night Em."

Mike stood up and pulled a blanket down in front of them, hiding them from view. Underneath the desk, El and Em curled up opposite each other, with only a small space between them.

"We stay here?" El asked Em.

"Yes," Em replied.

El nodded, and they both closed their eyes and went to sleep.


	4. Pictures

##### TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH, 1983

When Mike came downstairs in the morning, El was playing with a radio, and Em was curled up nearby. 

"Hey, you found my supercomm," Mike said to El. "Pretty cool, huh? I talk to my friends with it. Mostly Lucas cuz he lives so close. Signal's pretty weak." He reached into his pockets and pulled out some eggos. "Got you breakfast." 

El and Em took the eggos and started eating them.

"So listen, this is gonna sound a little weird, but I just need you two to go out there." Mike pointed outside. "Then go to the front door and ring the doorbell. My mom will answer, and you'll tell her that you're lost and that you need help, but whatever you do, you can't tell her about last night or that you know me. Understand?"

El and Em stared at him.

"Really, it's no big deal, we'll just pretend to meet again. And my mom, she'll know who to call."

"No," Em said firmly.

"Oh, so you can speak," Mike said in surprise. He looked at El. "Can you speak too?" 

El nodded. 

Mike turned back to Em. "Okay, well, um, you said no?"

"No," Em repeated.

"No, you don't want my mom to get help?"

Em shook her head.

"... You two are in trouble, aren't you?" Mike asked.

El and Em just looked at him.

"Who... who are you in trouble with?"

"Bad people," Em answered.

"Bad people?" Mike echoed. 

Em nodded. 

"They wanna hurt you, the bad people?"

Em put two fingers to her head in imitation of a gun, then slowly moved her hand so that the gun was aimed at Mike. "Understand?"

"Michael, where are you?" came a voice from upstairs. "We're going to be late, let's go!"

"Alright, uh, I'll be back, just stay here, okay, stay here!" Mike pulled the blanket down to hide them, then jumped up and ran upstairs.

* * *

"You want anything to drink? We have OJ, skim milk, what else? Um, we have..."

Mike had brought El and Em upstairs, and the two of them started wandering around. They entered the living room, and El came across a TV and began to examine it.

"Oh, this is my living room," Mike said. "It's mostly just for watching TV. Nice, right? It's a 22 inch, that's like ten times bigger than Dustin's."

Em wandered over to the curtains.

"Oh, Em, don't open those," Mike called out. "We don't want anyone to know you're here."

Em started playing with the curtains, but didn't open them. She just rubbed the fabric between her fingers.

El walked over to some framed pictures. Among them was a picture of a teenaged girl, and El smiled at that picture. "Pretty," she said.

"I guess," Mike grimaced. "That's my sister Nancy." 

Em left the curtains and walked over to the pictures too. She and El started looking at all the different pictures together. 

"That's baby Holly," Mike pointed, "and those are my parents. What are your parents like? Do you both have the same parents?" 

El wandered over to a soft chair. 

"That's our La-Z-Boy. It's where my dad sleeps. You can try it if you want." 

El hesitantly started walking around to the front of the chair, while Em watched from in front of the pictures. 

"Yeah, it's fun," Mike said encouragingly, and crouched down at the side of the chair. 

El sat down and looked at Mike. 

"Just trust me, okay?" he said. 

El nodded. Mike pulled the lever, and the chair reclined. El was a bit startled, but after a moment she smiled widely. 

"See? Fun, right?" Mike pulled the lever back and the chair went back to normal. "Now you try." 

El reached down and pulled the lever, and the chair reclined again. Mike and El laughed, and Em smiled slightly. 

"Hey, do you wanna try?" Mike asked Em. 

Em shook her head.

* * *

Mike showed them around his house, and eventually they got to his room, where Mike started showing them his toys. Em wasn't really paying attention; she mostly just stared into space, occasionally wiping her nose. El was watching Mike, but it's debatable if she was actually paying attention. She eventually wandered away, and walked over to a golden sculpture. 

"Oh, these are all my science fair trophies," Mike explained after running over to see what she was looking at. "We got first every year, except for last year when we got third. Mr. Clarke said it was totally political." 

El noticed a picture of four boys. One of the boys was Mike, two of them were the other two boys from last night, and the fourth one... the fourth one was _him_. El pointed at him. 

"You know Will?" Mike asked in surprise. "Did you see him last night, on the road?" 

Before El could answer, there was a screech of tires as a car pulled up next to the house. Mike ran to the window and looked outside. 

"We gotta go," Mike said urgently. He gestured to Em, who had already started to get up, grabbed El's arm, and ran out of the room. 

Mike and El ran down the stairs, with Em lagging behind, but they couldn't get downstairs fast enough. The door to the house opened, and Mike's mother came inside with Holly. Mike and El turned around and ran up the stairs, and Em turned around and walked back into Mike's room. 

"Ted, is that you?" Mike's mom called out. 

"Just me mom," Mike called back as he ran into his room, dragging El behind him. 

"Mike? What are you doing home?" 

"One second!" Mike closed his door and started looking around his room, but then he stopped. 

"Your mother won't come in here," Em said as she wiped her nose and sat back down on the floor. "It doesn't matter how I know that. Just go downstairs and talk to her." 

Mike stared at her for a second, and then he directed El to sit down too. 

"Stay here, and stay quiet," he said. "I'll be back soon." 

He ran out the door and shut it behind him.


	5. Superpowers

"Are you outta your mind?" 

The other two boys were back. 

"Just listen to me!" Mike begged. 

"You are outta your mind!" 

"El knows about Will!" 

"Who's El?" 

Mike pointed. 

"What do you mean she knows about Will?" 

Mike picked up the photo from earlier. "She pointed at him. At his picture. She knew he was missing, I could tell!" 

"You could tell?" 

"Just think about it," Mike said. "Do you really think it was a coincidence that we found them on Mirkwood, the same place where Will disappeared?" 

"That _is_ weird." 

"And Em said bad people are after them. I think maybe these bad people are the same ones that took Will. I think —" 

"Wait, their names are El and Em? Like the letters, L and M?" 

"What? Oh, I didn't even realize that," Mike laughed. "No, El is short for Eleven, and —" 

"Her name is Eleven?!" 

"Yeah, their names are Eleven and Twelve. I couldn't think of a nickname for Twelve, so I just called her Em. I didn't realize I made them letters." 

"Their names are Eleven and Twelve?!" 

"What does it matter?" Mike cried in frustration. "I think they know what happened to Will!"

"Then why don't they tell us?" 

The boys walked over to the El and Em. 

"Do you know where he is?" 

El and Em stared at them. 

The boy who talked last got angry at them, and grabbed El by the shoulders. "Do you know where Will is?" he asked angrily. 

"Stop it, you're scaring them!" Mike cried. 

The boy turned to Mike. "They should be scared!" He turned back to El and Em. "If you know where he is, tell us!" 

El and Em stared at him.

"This is ridiculous!" the boy cried. "We have to take them to your mom!" 

"No, Em said telling any adults would put us in danger," Mike said firmly. 

"What kind of danger?" the other boy asked. 

" _Danger_ danger," Mike answered. He imitated Em's gesture from earlier, putting two fingers to the other boy's head in imitation of a gun, then slowly moving his hand to aim the gun at the angry boy. 

The angry boy slapped his hand away. "No, no, no!" he cried. "We're going back to plan A. We're telling your mom!" 

He turned and started walking quickly to the door, but then he slowed, and stopped. He stood still, staring straight ahead. 

"Lucas?" Mike asked, concerned. "Are you okay?" 

"Lucas Sinclair," Em called out. "Turn around and look at me." 

Lucas turned around, looking dazed. The other boys turned around too, looking at Em in shock. 

"You are not going to tell Mike's mom that we're here," Em said sternly, her nose bleeding. "Nod if you understand." 

Lucas nodded. 

"Good," Em said, wiping her nose. 

Lucas blinked, then gasped. He stared at Em, looking as if he was about to say something, then decided not to. 

Em just stared at him, while El kept looking back and forth between Em and the boys. 

The boys stared at Em, shock, fear, and awe on their faces.

* * *

Em led El back down to the basement. They gave the boys a bit of a fright when they walked right past the table, but Em knew that it would be fine. She also knew that things would go more smoothly if they were in the basement.

When they got there, Em curled up inside the blankets, and El started playing with the radio again.

"They call it superpowers," Em announced.

El looked at Em curiously.

"The things that we can do," Em clarified. "They call it superpowers." She giggled. "They think it's amazing."

El thought about this for a moment, then turned her attention back to the radio.

A short time later, footsteps could be heard descending the stairs.

"El? Em?" Mike called out.

He entered into view, the other two boys right behind him. He was holding a tray.

"No adults," he reassured them. "Just us and some meatloaf."

Em looked at the other two boys.

"Don't worry," Mike reassured her again. "Lucas won't tell anyone, even if they're not my mom, and Dustin also won't tell anyone. They promise."

"Promise?" El asked.

"It means something that you can't break," Mike explained. "Ever." 

"They don't know what promise means?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"They promise not to tell anyone about you," Mike said, ignoring Lucas's comment. "Right?" he added, giving Lucas and Dustin a look.

"We never would have upset you if we knew you had superpowers," Dustin responded.

Mike hit his leg. "What Dustin is trying to say is that they were just scared earlier, that's all."

"We just wanted to find our friend," Lucas added.

"Friend?" El asked.

"Yeah, friend. Will."

"What is friend?"

"Is she serious?" Lucas asked. "First promise, now friend?"

Dustin shrugged.

"Um," Lucas attempted to explain, "a friend —"

"— is someone that you'd do anything for," Mike interjected.

"You lend them your cool stuff like comic books and trading cards," Dustin added.

"And they never break a promise," Mike continued.

"Especially when there's spit," Lucas added.

"Spit?"

"A spit swear means," Lucas spit into his hand, "you never break your word." He shook hands with Dustin. "It's a bond."

"That's super important, because friends... they tell each other things, things that parents don't know." Mike said. "Things like, 'I know two kids with superpowers and they're hiding in my basement.' So you —"

"Wait," Dustin interrupted. "El, you have superpowers, right?"

El nodded.

"Are they the same as Em's?" Dustin asked, excited.

"Aren’t we supposed to be finding Will?" Lucas burst out.

El looked at him for a moment, then stood up, walked over to the table with the D&D board, and sat down. She put her hands on the table, her fingers on the board, and closed her eyes. The boys gathered around her, and Em watched from the sidelines.

"What's she doing?" Lucas asked to no one in particular.

"El?" Mike asked

She opened her eyes and picked up Will's D&D piece. "Will," she said.

"Superpowers!" Dustin stated the obvious.

Lucas shook his head at Dustin.

Mike sat down next to El. "Did you see him?" he asked. "On Mirkwood? Do you know where he is?"

El pushed the pieces off the board and flipped it over. She picked up Will's piece and slammed it down in the center. 

Mike looked at the piece, waiting for an explanation, but when none came, he said, "I don't understand."

"Hiding," El responded.

"Will is hiding?" Mike asked.

El nodded.

Dustin stared at Will's piece, his eyes wide. Lucas leaned forward, his hands on his knees, watching attentively.

"From the bad men?" Mike asked.

El shook her head.

"Then from who?"

El picked up the demogorgon piece and put it down next to Will's piece.

Mike looked at Lucas. Lucas looked at Dustin. Dustin, who was still staring at the board, put his hands behind his head and sighed heavily.


	6. Barb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, Barb cut her hand, so there'll be more blood mentions than usual.

Barb sat by the pool, her feet dangling in the water. She felt lonely. Her friend was changing, and seemed to be leaving her behind.

She moved her feet back and forth, watching the ripples they made. Should she leave? Nancy might be awhile. But she couldn't help feeling like if she left Nancy now, she would be leaving her forever.

That's silly, she told herself. You're being dramatic.

But no matter how many times she told herself that, she couldn't bring herself to leave.

Some blood dripped from her hand and down into the pool. She looked at her hand, wondering if she should replace her bandage, when suddenly the lights went out, and she heard a strange sound from behind her. She looked behind her and —

Suddenly she was lying on her back, and there was liquid in her mouth. She choked on it a little, but recovered quickly.

She picked her head up and looked around, but her glasses were so smudged that she couldn't see a thing. She took them off, then sat up while she looked around again. She was in some sort of hole.

"Hello?" she called out as she stood up. "Nancy?" She turned around in a circle, surveying her surroundings. She had to squint a little without her glasses; thankfully her prescription wasn't very high.

The walls and floor of the hole were covered in these things that looked kinda like tree roots. The only illumination was a faint bluish light that came from... somewhere. The floor was hard, and cracked. Where the hell was she?

"Nancy!" she called out again. She was beginning to panic. She continued turning around, trying to get her bearings, and then she saw it. It was grotesque; it looked a bit like a human but it had no face. It had no face! She screamed.

She turned and ran and tried to climb up the roots and out of the hole, but the thing grabbed her and dragged her to the floor. She pulled herself free and started feeling along the wall, trying to find a handhold, and finally she found one. It felt like a ladder. She grabbed it, and looked back at the thing. It was making a noise that sounded just as grotesque as the thing looked.

She started climbing the ladder, still looking back at the thing, when suddenly it... it just... stopped moving. It stood there, frozen, as if in a daze. She looked at it curiously, wondering why it had stopped moving, but then her better judgment took hold and she hurriedly climbed out of the hole.

Wait, this looked like Steve's backyard! Well, kind of. The house looked like it was falling apart, and it was covered in those roots, those slimy roots that covered everything in sight.

Nancy! Nancy was in that house. Barb needed to get to her, to warn her, to tell her about the thing.

Barb ran into the house. She stumbled a little from the slippery slime, but kept running. She didn't have time to stop; she needed to get Nancy and get out of there.

She ran up the stairs. "Nancy?" she called out. She was out of breath and took in a big gulp of air, only to immediately start coughing. She pushed on despite the coughing that kept on making her double over. She checked every room, calling for Nancy. Nothing. Each room was just as cold, dark, empty, and covered in slime as everything else. How had this happened? Where was Nancy?

Barb suddenly felt very dirty. She was covered in slime, and there was blood on her hand. She felt this overwhelming need to clean herself. The wall next to her had wallpaper on it. She tore some of it off and used it to clean herself as best as she could.

She looked herself over when she was done. She had gotten all the blood off her hand, and she wasn't bleeding anymore so she wouldn't get bloody again. She hadn't been as successful with the slime; it was really hard to get all that slime off with just some scraps of wallpaper. She considered spending more time on it, but that overwhelming need to be clean was fading, and she suddenly remembered that she was running from a monster.

Nancy clearly wasn't here. And Barb needed to get away from that thing.

Barb ran down the stairs and out the front door. She looked back at the house for a moment, reluctant to leave without Nancy, but then she felt a flash of fear. The monster could start moving any second now. She tore her eyes away from the house and took off down the street.

 

Back in our world, Em opened her eyes and wiped her nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's play a game of "spot the times Em used her second power!"


	7. Operation Mirkwood

##### WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 1983

El and Em spent the day wandering around the house. This went against Mike's instructions to "stay down here, don't make any noise, and don't leave," and he would be very nervous if he knew that they were going against his instructions, but he didn't, so it was fine. What he didn't know couldn't hurt him. 

With the previous night's revelation that El knew where Will was, the boys decided to try to find him by following El's directions. Em knew that this wouldn't work out as planned, but it's not like anyone bothered to ask her.

Mike had given El his watch and instructed them to leave to the power lines behind his house when the numbers read three-one-five, so when Mike's watch read 3:15 they dutifully left to the power lines. The boys arrived a short time after they got there. 

"Hey, you two!" Mike called out jovially. 

"Mike!" El looked relieved. She had gotten nervous when the boys weren't there right away.

Mike tapped the back of his bike seat. "Hop on," he instructed. When El started walking toward him, he turned to Em and said "You can sit on Dustin's bike." 

Dustin scooted forward on his seat and shot Em an ear-to-ear grin. Em smiled slightly in return and walked toward him. 

"Come on," Mike urged. "We only have a few hours." 

El and Em hopped on the bikes and they all started moving in the direction that El indicated.

* * *

As they went deeper into the woods it got harder to ride the bikes, so after a while they got off the bikes and just walked. Mike and El were in the lead, Lucas and Dustin were in the middle, and Em was trailing behind. 

When Em used her future sense she always skipped over this walk through the woods because nothing important happened. Because of that, she was experiencing this walk for the first time. 

This was the first time she was in the woods and was relaxed enough to actually pay attention to her surroundings, and she was having the time of her life. The ground was completely covered in a thick layer of crunchy leaves that were really fun to walk on. There were different types of animal calls coming from all directions. There were also tons of new smells and so, so many trees! 

She noticed some movement through the leaves nearby. It was a small animal. She focused on it, and it stopped moving and looked at her. She stared back, and it started slowly walking toward her. She was so entranced by this small woodland creature that she barely even noticed that her nose was bleeding. 

Suddenly a voice faded into her awareness. 

"Twelve!" Dustin called loudly. 

Em jumped and turned to face Dustin, and stumbled backward a little, breathing hard. She quickly looked back at the animal, only to catch a glimpse of it running off. 

"You scared it away!" she said angrily. 

"We came here to find Will, not so you could be a Disney princess," Lucas reminded her. "Come on." 

They continued walking, with Em occasionally stopping to examine this or that, and then hurriedly catching up to the others before they noticed that she stopped. She was vaguely aware of some conversation that Mike and El were having, but she didn't bother paying attention to it. The woods were much more interesting. 

Unfortunately, time still passes even when Em doesn't pay attention to it. The sun set and stars appeared in the sky. This had some obvious downsides, namely that it was cold and difficult to see. But it wasn't all bad; nightfall brought with it a whole new set of sounds, and Em quite liked looking at the stars. They were pretty, and staring up at them felt familiar somehow, like it was something she used to do a long time ago. She felt the edges of a memory in the peripheries of her mind, but before she could figure out what that memory was, they arrived at Will's house.

El looked at the house for a moment, then turned to Mike and said, "Here." 

"Yeah," Mike said, a bit confused at why they were there. "This is where Will lives." 

"Hiding," El explained.

"No no, this is where he _lives_." Mike told her. "He's missing from here. Understand?" 

Dustin and Lucas caught up to them and dropped their bikes onto the ground. Dustin was clearly exhausted. 

"What are we doing here?" Lucas asked in an exasperated tone.

Mike sighed. "She said he's hiding here," he told them.

"Um, no." Lucas was very annoyed.

Dustin was annoyed bordering on angry. "I swear, if we walked all the way out here for nothing —"

"That's exactly what we did!" Lucas cried. "I told you she didn't know what the hell she was talking about!" 

Mike turned to El, tired and annoyed. "Why did you bring us here?" he asked. 

El stammered, and barely got out a syllable. "I —"

"Mike!" Lucas said loudly to get his attention. "Don't waste your time with her," he continued at a more normal volume. 

Em finally caught up to them, and she walked over to stand beside El as Mike and Lucas argued.

"What do you want to do then?!" Mike cried.

"Call the cops like we should have done yesterday!" Lucas retorted.

"We are _not_ calling the cops." 

"Hey guys?" Dustin called out. He was looking past them with a concerned look on his face. Mike and Lucas completely ignored him, so he started walking past them toward whatever he was looking at.

"What other choice do we have?!" Lucas cried.

"Guys!" Dustin yelled.

The others finally looked at him, then followed his gaze past him. They heard sirens, and they saw two police cars and an ambulance driving past, and for a moment they were all (except for Em of course) frozen in shock.

"Will," Mike said quietly.

They almost fell or knocked each other over in their haste to get back to their bikes. They jumped on and chased after the sirens, following them all the way to their destination: the quarry. When they got there, they pulled up behind a fire truck and jumped off their bikes, then ran to peek out from the back of the fire truck. They watched as something was removed from the water and placed on a raft.

"It's not Will," Mike tried to convince himself. "It can't be." 

"It's not," Em said confidently. 

The raft was pulled out of the water, and the boys recognized the clothes that Will was wearing when he went missing.

"It's not Will?" Mike asked, starting to get angry. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes." Em said calmly.

Mike whipped around and glared at her. "Oh, yeah? Prove it," he challenged.

Em pretended to think for a moment. "The supercomm," she said.

"What?" Mike was still angry, but he was also surprised.

Em turned to El. "Eleven, the supercomm."

El nodded. "Okay."

"Am I the only one who doesn't know what's going on here?" Dustin asked.

"What about the supercomm?" Mike questioned.

"You'll see," Em answered him. "The supercomm is at your house. Let's go." She started to walk toward the bikes.

"This proof had better be good," Mike warned.

"Oh, so we're going back to your house now?" Lucas asked, trying to use sharp, angry comments to hide the sadness creeping up inside him. "Great," he muttered. "We're still doing whatever the weirdos say."

They all got back on the bikes and started riding back to Mike's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I read the line "trying to use sharp, angry comments to hide the sadness creeping up inside him" I get this TV announcer voice in my head proclaiming "Drag him!" and it cracks me up every time, and that's really the main reason I included that line


	8. Supercomm

They arrived back at Mike's house and went into the basement. Em immediately ran to the supercomm and handed it to El.

"I'll help you focus," she told El.

El nodded and sat down. She turned on the supercomm, and switched the channel so it produced static. She then closed her eyes and concentrated, and Em sat down next to her and did the same.

"What are you doing?" Mike asked.

Em shushed him. "Eleven needs to focus."

Lucas rolled his eyes, but the boys remained quiet. After a minute, the static was interrupted by a voice.

"So come on and let me know,  
Should I stay or should I go?"

The boys all stared at the supercomm, too shocked to react. The singing continued.

"Should I stay or should I go now?  
Should I stay or should I go now?"

The boys jolted and ran toward the supercomm, all of them crowding around it, fighting each other to get closest.

"If I go there will be trouble,  
If I stay it will be double"

El held out the supercomm, and Mike managed to grab it first.

"Will, is that you? It's Mike!" he said frantically. "Do you copy? Over."

Static.

Lucas grabbed the supercomm. "Will, it's us, are you there?"

Static.

Dustin leaned over and pushed the transmit button. "Will, can you hear us? We're here!"

Static.

"Why isn't he answering?" Lucas cried in frustration. "He isn't even singing anymore, he's just quiet!"

"Maybe he switched to a different channel?" Dustin suggested.

"Why would he switch to a different channel?" Lucas asked.

Mike had been looking a bit thoughtful through all of this, and he suddenly presented an interesting idea. "What if it has nothing to do with the channel? What if, somehow, they're channeling him?"

Lucas side-eyed Mike, but Dustin was excited. "Like... like Professor X," he said.

Mike gestured in agreement. "Yeah."

Lucas was skeptical. "I don't know," he said. "It seems like a bit of a stretch."

"Why don't we give them back the supercomm and find out?" Mike suggested.

"Okay, fine," Lucas said with a shrug. He handed the supercomm back to El.

El closed her eyes and concentrated. Beside her, Em also closed her eyes, but she wasn't helping El concentrate. If El showed no problems with channeling Will, then the boys wouldn't think to go to school. If they didn't go to school, then Papa wouldn't come after them as fast and the older people wouldn't find them as fast, and Em didn't want to drag this whole thing out. It was stressful, having to orchestrate events so they happened perfectly, and she just wanted to get it over with. Of course, she could just suggest to the boys that they go to school, but it was easier to do nothing and let it play out. So she did nothing.

For about five seconds the supercomm just played static. But then it played Will's voice again, but very faintly.

"....... let me........ stay or should........ should I............ go now? If............ stay it will....."

  
"We keep losing the signal," Dustin said, a little disappointed.

"..... bugging me....... don't want....."

Radio feedback rang out.

"Maybe..." Mike said hesitantly. "Maybe they would do better with a stronger radio."

"Mr. Clarke's Heathkit ham shack," Dustin suggested in renewed excitement.

Mike gestured in agreement. "Yeah."

"The Heathkit's at school," Lucas pointed out. "There is no way we're gonna get the weirdos in there without anyone noticing. I mean, look at them."

The boys all turned to look at El and Em. El looked at each of them in turn, confused, but Em just smirked.

"Well," Dustin tilted his head to the side as he considered the problem. "It's not so bad. They just need some normal clothes and fake hair."

Mike perked up. "There's some boxes full of Nancy's old clothes in the attic," he told them. "And there's definitely at least one wig there too."

"I think we have some wigs in my house too," Lucas said.

"So how about we go home, and we all look around our house for girls' clothes and wigs," Dustin suggested.

"And tomorrow you'll come to my house and we'll make them look presentable," Mike added.

"Okay," Lucas said. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

##### THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, 1983

The next morning the boys all dumped whatever they had found onto the table. Mike had found some of Nancy's old clothes and a blonde wig. Lucas had found some of Erica's clothes that she didn't wear that often and a brown wig, but Erica's clothes were too small for El and Em. Dustin had found some of his mother's old clothes but the only wig he had found was a clown wig.

The boys had only a vague idea of what constituted normal girls' clothes, but they tried their best, and it wasn't long before El and Em looked kind of presentable. El ended up wearing the blonde wig and one of Nancy's old dresses, and Em ended up wearing the brown wig, one of Nancy's old t-shirts, and one of Dustin's mother's old skirts.

The boys pretended to leave for school, but really they circled back to the power lines to meet up with El and Em. They hung out there for a while, so that by the time they got to school most students would be in class, and then they got on their bikes and rode to school, keeping with the previous arrangement of El on Mike's bike and Em on Dustin's bike.


	9. Assembly

"Okay, remember, if anyone sees us, look sad," Mike reminded them as they walked into school.

Lucas and Dustin turned to El and Em and made pretend sad faces. Lucas ran his fingers down his cheeks to mimic tears, and Dustin twisted his fist back and forth next to his eye to mimic rubbing his eyes. El attempted to copy them, but Em shook her head at El. 

"Don't do that," she told El. "It looks fake."

"Attention students," said a voice on the PA. "There will be an assembly to honor Will Byers in the gymnasium now. Do not go to fourth period."

They arrived at the AV Club room and Mike tried to open the door. He failed. 

"It's locked," he told the others.

"What?" Lucas exclaimed. He walked up to the door and tried to open it too. He also failed.

"Boys?" Mr. Clarke called out as he walked around the corner.

They all spun around in surprise, except for Em, who was already facing him.

"Hey," Lucas said. He wasn't sure what else to say.

"Assembly's about to start," Mr. Clarke replied.

"We know," Mike said forlornly. "We're just, you know..." he looked down.

Lucas barely suppressed a laugh. "Upset," he added. He put on a sad expression a little too late.

"Yeah, yeah, definitely upset," Dustin stammered.

"And we need some alone time," Mike continued.

"To... cry," Dustin added.

"Yeah, listen, I get it," Mr. Clarke said sympathetically. "I do. I know how hard this is, but let's just be there for Will, huh? And then..." he rummaged around in his pocket, pulled out his keys, and tossed them to Mike, "the Heathkit is all yours for the rest of the day. What do you say?" 

The boys smiled. 

"Oh," Mr Clark suddenly noticed El and Em. "I don't believe we've met. What are your names?"

"Eleven," El started to say, but Mike quickly spoke over her. 

"Eleanor!" he burst out. "She's my, uh..."

"Cousin!" Lucas added helpfully.

"Second cousin!" Dustin added, a little less helpfully. 

"She's here for Will's funeral," Mike said.

"Ah," Mr. Clarke responded. He turned to Em. "And what's your name?" he asked.

"Emily!" Lucas burst out. 

"She's also here for Will's funeral," Mike added. 

"Well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Eleanor and Emily," Mr. Clarke said. "I wish you were here under better circumstances."

"Thank you," El said uncertainly.

Em just nodded.

"Shall we?" Mr. Clarke asked, gesturing down the hall. 

"Yep," Lucas said.

They turned around and started walking to the gym.

It didn't take long for them to arrive. When they opened the door and walked in, the principal stopped talking, and everyone turned and stared at them. 

"Abort!" Dustin whispered. He turned around and started to leave, but Lucas pushed him back inside.

They walked over to the benches to sit down, and after a second the principal continued his speech, and everyone else continued staring into the middle distance.

After a while Mike got annoyed at the other kids.

"Look at these fakers," he said to Lucas.

"They probably didn't even know his name till today," Lucas agreed.

They heard some laughter from nearby. They looked to see who was laughing and, of course, it was Troy and James. 

"Blah, blah, blah, blah..." Troy was saying. "Oh, he was such a great student," he said in a mocking tone. "Oh, he's gonna leave a hole in the community!"

"Mouth breather," El muttered darkly.

Troy and James continued laughing and mocking, and Mike just got angrier and angrier. By the time the assembly was over, his anger led to him making a very bad decision.

"Hey!" Mike called out as he followed Troy and James. "Hey! Troy! Hey Troy!" Troy finally turned around and looked at him. "You — you think this is funny?" Mike stammered.

"What'd you say Wheeler?" Troy asked.

"I saw you guys laughing over there," Mike continued, still stammering. "And I think that's a real messed up thing to do!"

"Didn't you listen to the counselor Wheeler?" James asked with false sincerity. "Grief shows itself in funny ways." 

"Besides, what's there to be sad about anyway?" Troy asked. "Will's in fairy land now, right? Flying around with all the other little fairies! La la la, la la la," Troy finished in a sing-song. 

Troy and James laughed and walked away. Mike watched them go for a second, but then he walked up behind Troy and pushed him to the floor. 

Everyone gasped and oohed. Troy looked up, burning with rage. "You're dead, Wheeler!" he threatened. He got up and turned to face Mike. "Dead!" he growled. He started running at Mike, when suddenly he froze.

For a moment everyone fell silent; no one knew why he had stopped moving. His expression was panicked, and his eyes moved around wildly. He didn't seem to know why he had stopped moving either. Mike looked at him, and then turned his head back to look at Em, but Em was looking at El. Mike followed her gaze and saw that El was looking down at the floor, and her fists were clenched.

Suddenly there was some scattered laughter, and a boy exclaimed, "Dude, Troy peed himself!" Everyone started laughing then, except for Em, who wasn't sure what everyone found so funny about what appeared to be an unfortunate accident. Whatever, she had more important things to think about than why people were acting strange. All that mattered about this incident was that it made Troy angry, so he would come after Mike and then inadvertently help the older people find them.

"Hey, what's going on here?" the principal called out, rushing over to the group of laughing kids. The group immediately scattered, leaving only Troy standing there, and Mike, Lucas, Dustin, El, and Em ran to the AV Club room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole thing with Troy peeing himself and everyone laughing at him is incredibly ableist, but it was too important to the plot to just cut out, so I did what I could.


	10. Upside Down

Mike unlocked the AV Club room door and turned on the light. "Come on," he urged the others as he strode inside.

The other kids followed him in. El sat down at the table and Em stood beside her.

"Now what?" Dustin asked.

Mike turned on the radio and tuned it. "They'll find him," he said confidently.

El closed her eyes. For a few seconds the only sound in the room was the tuning of the radio, as the boys anxiously waited for something to happen.

There was a popping sound and the light turned off, leaving only the lamp for illumination. The boys looked up and gasped.

"Holy..." Dustin muttered.

Banging sounds came from the radio. The boys leaned in.

"What is that?" Dustin asked.

"Mom? Mom?" came Will's voice over the radio.

"It's him!" Lucas exclaimed.

"Mom?" Will continued. "Please... Mom? Mom!"

"Will!" Mike yelled.

"Will, it's us again, talk to us!" Lucas cried.

"Yeah, we're here! Can you hear us?" Dustin asked.

"Hello? Mom?" 

"Why can't he hear us?" Lucas asked in frustration.

"I don't know!" Mike was frustrated too.

"Mom? Mom! Mom... Mom, it's coming!" Will paused. "It's like home, but it's so dark! It's so dark and empty, and it's cold! Mom? Mom!" He paused again. "Mom please!"

The radio suddenly sparked and caught fire, and the light turned back on. The fire alarm went off, and Dustin grabbed a fire extinguisher and put the fire out.

Em hooked her arm under El's and started helping her up. 

"Is she okay?" Mike asked in concern. He gave El a quick look over and noticed that her nose was bleeding a lot and she seemed to be in a daze.

"Tired," Em explained.

"Can she move?" 

Em shook her head.

"I'll help," Mike said and grabbed El's other arm. Together, Em and Mike pulled El out of the chair, then Lucas grabbed her feet, and the three of them carried her out of the room.

"Hang on," Dustin called out as he followed them. "I have an idea." He took off running, and came back a few seconds later with a rolling cart. "Here, put her on the cart."

They got her onto the cart and started rolling her out of the school. They navigated the hallways the best they could while also trying to avoid all the students who were out of their classrooms because of the fire alarm. 

When they finally got outside, Lucas turned to Em with a question. "Hey, how come you're not tired like El?"

Em looked at him with a slightly confused expression. "Why would I be?" 

"What do you mean, why would you be? You were both finding Will, so —"

Em shook her head.

"No?" Lucas was confused. 

"I don't find people."

Dustin looked up. "But... you did. At least with the supercomm you did, I wasn't looking in the room just now." 

Em was getting tired of this conversation. "Just helped her concentrate," she said curtly.

"Oh..." Dustin murmured in understanding. Then he became thoughtful. "So, you do have different powers? What are they?"

Em stared blankly ahead for a second, then decided to use her power to make Dustin and Lucas stop bothering her, because a quick flash to the future assured her that this would be a long conversation.

"El!" Mike exclaimed. El was coming to. "Are you okay, El?" Mike asked her. 

El was still disoriented, but she turned her head to Mike and slowly nodded. 

"Here, come on, we need to leave," he said gently as he carefully helped her into a sitting position.

Em came over, and together she and Mike helped El stand up.

They all got onto the boys' bikes and started riding back to Mike's house, with El holding tightly onto Mike so she wouldn't fall off.

* * *

Back at Mike's house, the boys spent hours deliberating over what Will meant, while El and Em sat on the couch and stared into space.

Now that they had finished setting the stage for Troy and the lab to come after them, Em allowed her mind to wander, and she realized that being surrounded by a bunch of other kids at school had felt familiar. She thought about this, and she felt memories tugging at her, but she couldn't quite make those memories out. For some reason, when she tried to focus on those memories, all she could think of was Papa telling her that he was her father.

"What was Will saying?" Mike asked, interrupting her thoughts. "Like home... like home... but dark?"

"And empty," Lucas filled in.

Dustin sighed. "Empty... and cold... Wait, did he say cold?"

Em had watched this happen so many times before, she could almost recite their words by heart. The boys would deliberate a little more, El would say "upside down," Mike would realize what that meant, Dustin would make the connection to The Vale of Shadows, Lucas would ask him how to shadow walk in real life, Dustin would say —

" _We_ can't shadow walk, but..." Dustin looked at El and Em. "Maybe _they_ can."

"Do you know how we get there?" Mike asked them. "To the Upside Down?"

They shook their heads.

"Oh, my God!" Lucas sighed loudly. The boys were back at square one. 

Well, that was another thing that was in the past and that Em never had to experience again. Em wished that the rest of the week would be in the past already too. Unfortunately, the most stressful part of the week for Em was yet to come, and, unlike most people, Em actually knew that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to write this last chapter, but thanks for the comments!


	11. Compass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like another explanation of Em's powers is in order. It might seem that her powers are inconsistent and don't match up with my descriptions but I actually have a very solid idea of what she can do, it's just that the rules governing her powers are very complex and difficult to explain so I didn't fully explain them. She also uses her powers in creative ways which allows her to do things that you might not expect. For example, in the first chapter she uses her future sense creatively to figure out the correct timing, and she also creatively uses her thought pattern manipulation to make the guards open to suggestion so that she can give them orders, which is why I had to explain her powers at all. Also, I feel like her interaction with that animal confused things a little so I want to clarify that she didn't actually make it walk towards her, all she did was make it curious and unafraid, it chose to walk towards her.

##### FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 1983

The boys decided to turn to Mr. Clarke for help. They spoke to him at the funeral for Will, and then they went back to Mike's house to tell El and Em what they'd learned. 

"It would take a lot of energy to build a gate like this," Mike said as he concluded his explanation. "But that's got to be what happened. Otherwise, how'd Will get there, right?"

"Right," El stammered, wide-eyed.

Lucas figured that they should get to the point. "What we want to know is," he said, "do  
you know where the gate is?" 

El and Em shook their heads. 

"Then how do you know about the Upside Down?" Lucas cried in frustration.

Mike looked at them, waiting for an answer, but El just looked down at her hands, and Em stared straight ahead, trying her best to hide her boredom. For a few moments the only sounds in the room were some uneven footsteps.

Mike looked at the source of the footsteps, and noticed that Dustin was moving around quite strangely. "Dustin, what are you doing?" he asked. Dustin didn't seem to hear him. "Dustin? Dustin!"

"Dustin!" Lucas yelled.

Dustin stopped moving. "I... I need to see your compasses." he announced.

"What?" Mike asked.

"Your compasses." Dustin repeated. "All of your compasses, right now!"

Mike and Lucas reluctantly got up to get their compasses, and Dustin got his too. They dumped the compasses onto the table, and Dustin arranged them in a line. They were all pointing to his left.

"What's exciting about this?" Mike asked.

"Well, they're all facing north, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's not true north." 

"What do you mean?" asked Mike.

"I mean exactly what I just said," Dustin responded. "That's not true north." 

Mike and Lucas just stared at him. 

"The sun rises in the east," he lifted his right hand, "and it sets in the west," he waved his left hand. "Which means that's true north." He pointed in front of him.

"So what you're saying is the compasses are broken." 

Dustin sighed. "Do you even understand how a compass works?" He picked up a compass and waved it in front of Mike's face. "Do you see a battery pack on this?" 

"No."

"No, you don't," Dustin said, exasperated. "Because it doesn't need one. The needle's naturally drawn to the Earth's magnetic North Pole." 

"So... what's wrong with them?" Lucas asked.

"Well, that's what I couldn't figure out, but then I remembered. You can change the direction of a compass with a magnet. If there's the presence of a more powerful magnetic field, the needle deflects to that power. And then I remembered what Mr. Clarke said. The gate would have so much power —"

"It could disrupt the electromagnetic field!" Mike exclaimed.

"Exactly." 

"Meaning," Lucas said, "if we follow the compasses north —"

"They should lead us to the gate," Dustin concluded.

El stared in horror, and then looked at Em for direction, but Em was preoccupied. This was her last chance to change the next day and a half. She could let things play out more or less the way they would if she didn't have a future sense, or she could cut this off right now and save El some distress. Unfortunately, as much as she wished to save El distress, there were too many variables that could go wrong if she started messing with the way that the older people would find them. It was much safer to just let things play out. 

Em spaced back in and noticed El's worried expression. Well, she could still save El some distress by giving her instructions so she would know that Em was taking care of the danger. She looked at the boys; they were busy preparing for the search. She leaned toward El. "You can change the direction that their compasses point," she whispered in her ear.

"Change the direction?" El whispered back. 

"Yes, you can use your power to make the compass needles slowly turn around to point in the wrong direction." 

El nodded. She already felt better.

* * *

They set out to find the gate, with the compasses as their guide. They followed the compasses into the woods and walked for hours, with Lucas and Dustin taking the lead, Mike and El walking side by side some distance behind them, and Em once again trailing behind. 

Em was delighted to be back in the woods again, and she threw all her energy into experiencing everything she could. She picked up a leaf and examined the patterns on it, then she crumbled the leaf into dust and let the dust slip through her fingers. She stood still and stared into the woods, taking in the enormity of it, the sheer number of trees. She dug her hands into the leaves on the ground and dragged them through it, and afterwards she sniffed her hands, enjoying the unfamiliar odor. She balanced herself on the thin edge of the train tracks and tried to walk on it, and she giggled when she inevitably fell off. She ran her hands along the rough barks of the nearby trees, and examined all the little bumps and crevices on them. It was fun and exciting, and a welcome respite from the stress and boredom that she had been experiencing. 

After a while the sun began to set, and a short time later they came across a bus yard. They started crossing the bus yard; Dustin was in front looking at his compass, Lucas was behind him, El and Mike were behind him, and Em brought up the rear.

El fell behind Mike, joining up with Em, having finally succeeded in turning the compass needles all the way around.

Dustin stopped in his tracks. "Oh, no."

"'Oh, no'?" Lucas echoed. "What's, 'Oh, no'?"

Dustin turned around to face Lucas. "We're headed back home." 

"What?" Mike exclaimed.

"Are you sure?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Dustin pointed to the sun, which was behind them. "Setting sun, right there. We looped right back around." 

"And you're just realizing this now?" Lucas asked, frustrated.

"Why is this all on me?" Dustin cried out defensively.

"Because you're the compass genius!" 

Dustin gestured with his compass. "What do yours say?" 

Mike and Lucas look at their compasses. "North!" they said simultaneously.

Lucas sighed.

"Makes no damn sense," Dustin muttered.

Mike sighed. "Maybe the gate moved." 

"No, I don't think it's the gate," Dustin replied. "I think it's something else screwing with the compasses." 

"Maybe it's something here," Mike suggested.

"No, it has to be like a super magnet." 

Lucas jabbed his finger in El's direction. "It's not a magnet," he said through clenched teeth. He turned to the others. "She's been acting weirder than normal. If they can do all those weird stuff with their minds, she can probably screw up a compass." 

Mike immediately jumped to her defense. "Why would she do that?" 

"Because they're trying to sabotage our mission! Because they're traitors!" Lucas started walking toward them.

"Lucas, what are you doing?" Mike asked before hurrying after him.

"You did it, didn't you?" Lucas asked El, but he already knew the answer. "You don't want us to reach the gate! You don't want us to find Will!" 

El looked like she was about to cry, and Em just stared at Lucas with a blank expression.

"Lucas, come on, seriously, just leave her alone!" Mike said in annoyance.

Lucas ignored him. "Admit it," he challenged her.

"No," El replied, but she could barely speak above a whisper.

"Admit it!" Lucas yelled. El jumped, and Lucas reached out and grabbed her arm. There was fresh blood on her sleeve. "Fresh blood!" he cried, and slapped her arm down. "I knew it." 

"Lucas, come on!" Mike yelled.

"And don't think I'm letting you off the hook," Lucas said, turning to Em. "You're always telling people what to do. You probably told her to screw with the compasses!" 

"Lucas, stop lying!" Mike shouted.

"Lying?" Lucas retorted. "You think I'm the one who's lying? I saw El wiping her nose on the tracks! She was using her powers!" 

"Bull!" Mike cried. "That's old blood. Right, El?"

El stared at him, still looking like she was about to cry, but now in more of a sad way than a scared way. 

"Right, El?" he asked again, a bit uncertain this time. 

"It's... not..." El was crying a little. "It's not safe." 

Lucas looked at Mike and shook his head, then looked back at El with a slightly disgusted expression. El turned to look at Em, uncertain; Em just shrugged.

**Author's Note:**

> To be continued...


End file.
